Berg's encounter with "terrorist" revealed

CNN ^ | 5/13/04 | Kelli Arena

[John H K]

I'm leaning towards trusting FOX.

Probably making a mistake. Fox's story was much earlier.

And if you look past political biases, Fox has a habit of horribly botching breaking stories and info.

[RIGHT IN LAS VEGAS]

What about all the photo of a shaved head and face Berg?

But the video shows a beard and hair!

[Mr. Mojo]

Nick was unknowningly duped by an international terrorist on his way to school, let the guy borrow his laptop to send an email...a complete stranger if we are to believe Nick's dad

I don't believe one thing that commie bastard says, and this story is obvious concoction. ....as you know.

[Michael Barnes]

Did I misread something in the clip?

Nope, you didn't misread anything..My wife and I were just discussing this. Nick had no clue this was coming, none.

See Travis' post above, theory, yes, but seems to me like travis hit on one thing, Nick served a higher purpouse.

Also, if you reference some of the earlier threads about this video, a number of posters commented on how this guy had no clue this was coming. He does seem awfully relaxed. Unlike the level headed guy who escaped terrorists recently. His video clearly showed concern; yet level headed thought.

[gandalftb]

If Moussaoui sent an email on Berg's email account, unless it was "signed" by Moussaoui and read by others, how would you know? You wouldn't, it would look like an email from Berg unless Berg created other users on his password account.

Otherwise Berg would also be reading the responses coming back to Moussaoui. The jihadists are way to careful for that. All this for some foreigners you just met on a bus ride?

[JackelopeBreeder]

Part of my job is to constantly send engineers to Iraq. And Afghanistan, Bosnia, Kosovo and other popular tourist destinations.

They do not just drive over the border. The formalities are a royal pain in the @$$. Berg's story is goofy from the word go.

[CitizenUSA]

unix: "this guy had no clue this was coming."

I haven't seen (and don't want to see) the whole video, but in the parts Fox showed, Berg didn't seem scared. Perhaps he was a naive dupe, but that doesn't explain why he was in Iraq in the first place or how he wound up in the terrorists' hands. I can see going to Iraq if he was under contract by the US military to install communications equipment, but it appears he was there to drum up business. For example, why didn't he just leave as soon as he was released? Then you have this story that the terrorists were using Bergs email. Is this true? If so, what's the odds of anyone accidentally meeting an Al-Queda terrorist, especially an Al-Queda leader, in any circumstance? It's unbelievable!

[Travis McGee]

Totally.

[rob777]

"What about all the photo of a shaved head and face Berg?

But the video shows a beard and hair!"



The more I hear about this whole thing, the more confusing it gets. There was even a suggestion, by medical experts on some other thread, that the decapitation was not the real thing. (not enough blood, screaming not in sync with the action, etc.)

[Joe Hadenuf]

Pretty dumb.. would you give your password to a stranger on a bus LOL

Well sure, but only after I gave him my SSN, DOB, Moms maiden name and credit card numbers....

[patriciamary]

Where there's smoke there's fire

[Ruth A.]

This is a technical guy, but he doesn't have the sense to protect his computer or passwords. Something is rotten in Denmark.

[Skywalk]

It's almost pointless to debate. What we need is more information, like the FBI describing the Moussaoui thing in DETAIL.

Because, as it stands, we have people who keep talking about the "best friend" line but don't pay attention to the rest of the statement which makes it pretty clear that the father was poorly sentimentalizing his son, not that his son was ACTUALLY a friend to terrorists. It's like people don't even care what was said just before and just after that remark.

Oh well.

[jwpjr]

Several posters have mentioned Nick's 'courage' as he sat there while the manifesto was read. I wonder if maybe Nick was the only person in the room who had not read the last page of the script. It's just possible that he thought he was just there as scenery and had no idea that he had a much more major role in the production. That would explain a lot, like why he seemed to be taken by surprise when he was overpowered. Someone on the first day mentioned that he seemed to be screaming "why?" That would certainly be the response of someone who did not know they were about to be decapitated. There has simply got to be more to this than we know right now. All of the conflicting stories about him being in Iraqi custody, and then it was US custody, etc.

[Jape]

And what of his father's first words that at least the videotaped beheading with a knife was "quick" and wasn't torture?

[CitizenUSA]

Jape: "And what of his father's first words that at least the videotaped beheading with a knife was "quick" and wasn't torture?"

I haven't watched the whole video, but others here have. Some of them said the tape skipped about a minute from the start of the hacking until they are holding Berg's head up. Also, I can't imagine that it would be that easy to lop someone's head off with a knife. I don't want to get too grisly here, but there's more than soft tissue involved.

[LadyDoc]

At one point during the bus ride, Berg said, the man sitting next to his son asked if he could use Nick's laptop computer.

"It turned out this guy was a terrorist and that he, you know, used my son's e-mail, amongst many other people's e-mail who he did the same thing to," Berg said.

This sounds fishy to me.

Usually your email is protected by a password. Even if you have an automatic password on your computer, in both MSN and AOL it is shown blank or with xxxxx in the place. So how could he steal it? Was he that smart, to go into the files to find it? Or was Berg too dumb? Did he have a satellite hookup or a cellphone hookup for his laptop? Why would someone on a bus want to "use" a laptop if they couldn't get on line? And where was he that his cell phone would reach that far back in the late 1990s? Cell phones cost lots of money, so why would he let them use his computer for so long if they were using airtime?

Anyway, we in Okalhoma don't consider towns big enough to have university campuses "remote". Remote is the Nature conservatory land. Remote is between towns in the pan handle. Remote are towns too small for Walmarts.

[Poohbah]

Okay, let's err on the side of ignorant. Even the dumbest folk wouldn't give out their passwords to an arab after 9/11.

This event happened before 9/11.

[LadyDoc]

His real mission was to act as a messenger, trying to become a go-between from Int'l A.N.S.W.E.R. to Al Queda

I wondered about this too....after all, one reason the Japenese hostages were sent home in disgrace is that they were trying this trick

And I wonder about a man who went to Africa to "teach" villagers to make bricks...DUH. Africans have been making bricks for hundreds of years. The only difference is that you now put cement in the bricks, or you kiln them, to make them stronger (Our mission high school taught brick making to the technical student). And why would an electronics person "teach brickmaking" which is a different skill entirely....

[Bryan24]

Travis, that makes sense.

Don't let the coincedences go by without challenging them. Berg had contact with associates of Al Queda near a flight school. One of these associates used his computer.

This is a country of 300,000,000 people, yet a guy who got his head chopped off by Al Queda IS THE SAME GUY who's computer was used by an Al Queda operative before 9/11.

The odds of that are pretty low. (Understatement of the year).

Here's a question for everyone to ponder: Is it possible that Berg was a contact for Al Queda cells in the US, and when he was arrested and questioned in Iraq, the terrorists realized he had been compromised so they killed him at a convienent time?